Iran Times International (Washington, DC) back issues from February 2009:
Iran orbits satellite.
Feb 06, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Islamic Republic Tuesday put an Iranian-made satellite into orbit aboard an Iranian-made rocket, becoming only the eighth country in the world to achieve that milestone. Seven days earlier, Reza Taqipur, head of the Iranian Space Agency, ...
Obama sends shuttlecocks & also sanctions to Tehran.
Feb 06, 2009 ... The Obama Administration's first initiatives on Iran look like the carrot and stick of the previous Administration--the United States will send a sports team to Iran and has imposed token sanctions on two more Iranian companies. Both actions were believed to have been in the ...
How to cope with Obama.
Feb 06, 2009; ... The Islamic Republic is uncertain how to respond to President Obama and appears to be positioning itself so it can jump in either direction--leaping into bilateral talks with the new administration, or walking away from them. Last week, President Ahmadi-nejad gave a laundry list ...
No. 1 general endorses prez.
Feb 06, 2009 ... In a startling interference by the military in electoral politics, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firuzabadi, the highest-ranking military officer in the land, has publicly endorsed the re-election of President Ahmadi-nejad in the June 12 balloting. Ahmadi-nejad has not yet announced whether ...
Revolution turns 30 years old.
Feb 06, 2009 ... Saturday marked the beginning of the 10-day celebration commemorating the 30th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The "Ten Days of Dawn" ceremonies were initiated at Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's mausoleum south of Tehran. The ...
Maryam not welcome in UK.
Feb 06, 2009 ... Britain says the leader of the Mojahedin-e Khalq is unlikely to be allowed entry into the United Kingdom because she was involved in past terrorist action even if she is no longer pushing terrorism as a policy. The Islamic Republic, meanwhile, launched a vocal campaign to tar ...
Gates bugged by Iranian subversion in S. America.
Feb 06, 2009 ... U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he is concerned about Iranian "subversive activity" in Latin America--in fact, more concerned with Iranian actions in Latin America than Russian. In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee last Tuesday, Gates actually joked about ...
Quotable notable.(Quotation)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency: "Iran wants to have its role as a regional ...
Basiji to get educated.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Basiji to get educated: The nation's largest student group, the Office for Strengthening Solidarity (OSS), says the regime is planning to allot 40 percent of all seats in universities to members of the Basij, the reserve forces of the Pasdaran. An OSS statement said that on January 17 the ...
Trucking across Persia.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Trucking across Peresia: NATO members are free to talk to Iran about shipping supplies to their troops in Afghanistan through Iran, the American general who commands NATO said Monday. Gen. John Craddock (photo) said it was a "national decision" how NATO members got supplies to their ...
Pilgrims killed in Iraq.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Pilgrims killed in Iraq: Seven Iranian pilgrims were killed in Iraq Monday. But in a possible sign of changing times, they were not killed in an ...
Feisty prime minister honored.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Feisty prime minister honored: The argument Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had last week at Davos, Switzerland, with Israeli President Shimon Peres has excited the Iranian regime and media. It has prompted ...
Portrait being sent to Obama.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Portrait being sent to Obama: A California artist, Fariba Nejat, has painted a portrait of President Obama that was unveiled in Cupertino, California, last week and will soon be presented to Obama. The Federated Women's Club and the ...
Skull-crusher to be honored.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Skull-crusher to be honored: Officials said President Ahmadi-nejad will shortly honor Lebanese militant Samir Kantar at an event in Tehran. Kantar was freed last summer after spending many years in an Israeli prison after ...
More excitement at Mehrabad.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... More excitement at Mehrabad; A domestic flight from Assaluyeh on the Persian Gulf to Tehran ended with a scare last ...
Bulgarian in deep trouble.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Bulgarian in deep trouble: A Bulgarian truck driver could be executed in Iran after he was arrested in Tabriz with 130 kilos of heroin found inside his truck. The ...
Zeros fall by the wayside.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Zeros fall by the wayside: The Iranian Central Bank has been debating for more than a year knocking three or four zeros off the national currency to make it a wee bit more user friendly. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe just announced it will knock 10 zeros ...
Yank to coach sport in Iran.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Yank to coach sport in Iran: An American coach, Gerardo Yassel Cabrere, has just been named to lead Iran's ...
A missing report.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... A missing report: Back last summer, during the kerfuffle over the interior minister whose honorary doctorate from Oxford was a fake (as was his BA and MA from Iran's Azadi University), President ...
Getting set to prosecute.(Tidbits and Morsels: A columns of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Getting set to prosecute: The Judiciary spokesman, Ali-Reza Jamshidi, announced last Wednesday that the Iranian courts are investigating war crimes committed by Israeli leaders and have the ...
ElBaradei says there's no rush.
Feb 06, 2009 ... Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says there's no need to rush to solve the Iran issue because Tehran is very far from having a nuclear weapon--but he let slip that he believes Iran wants a weapons capability. In interviews ...
Only scoreless tie with Thais.
Feb 06, 2009 ... The Iranian national soccer team was held to a humiliating scoreless tie with minnow Thailand last week, but Iran still leads its group in the Asian Cup preliminaries. One third of the 12 matches were played last month. But the next round will not be played until November 14. ...
Gaza ship docks in Beirut.
Feb 06, 2009 ... ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An Iranian ship carrying relief aid for Gaza has docked in Beirut after being unable to unload in either Gaza or Egypt. The cargo ship Iran Shahed left Bandar Abbas in December loaded with 2,000 tons of food and medical supplies. The ...
Aussies to try Iranian people smuggler.(Diaspora)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Indonesia will extradite to Australia an Iranian-Iraqi man accused of leading a people-smuggling operation that is believed to have transported hundreds of Middle Easterners to Australia. The agreement came six months after Hadi Ahmadi, 38, was arrested at Jakarta's Soekarno ...
IASF scholarship search opens March 1.(Diaspora)
Feb 06, 2009 ... The Iranian-American Scholarship Fund's (IASF) 2009 application will be available beginning March 1. Applicants must be undergraduate and graduate students of Iranian heritage who demonstrate both academic excellence and financial need. The IASF was established in San Diego, ...
Calif. man pleads guilty to smuggling plane parts.(Diasdora)
Feb 06, 2009 ... An Iranian-American in California pleaded guilty last Monday to scheming to violate the U.S. embargo against Iran by arranging for the sale of aircraft parts to Iran. Hassan Saied Keshari, 48, a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Novato, California, pleaded guilty to a single ...
Scandal shakes Iranian-American Jews.(Diasdora)
Feb 06, 2009 ... The growing economic crisis in the United States has caused some tension and conflict among those in Southern California's Iranian Jewish community, reports The Jewish Journal. The most recent controversy began in late September, when Washington Mutual seemed to be on the verge ...
North America abandons SUVs, but Iran Khodro now plans to build them.(Economy)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Iran Khodro, one of Iran's two big carmakers, says it is working hard to produce a sport utility vehicle (SUV) for the Iranian market. Manouchehr Manteghi, the managing director of Iran Khodro, discussed the firm's plans for the coming years at a news conference January 20, the ...
Germans cut insurance for exports sold to Iran.(Economy)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Germany announced last Monday it had drastically reduced its export guarantees for German companies trading with Iran. Berlin's export guarantees --which insure German companies selling goods to high-risk countries from possible non-payment--have been "clearly reduced," Thomas Steg, a ...
Afghans shift from opium to saffron--compete with Iran.(Economy)
Feb 06, 2009 ... International aid groups and the Afghan government are encouraging Afghan farmers to switch from opium to saffron, but that now gives Iran a rising competitor across its boarder. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Afghan farmers along the Iranian border say saffron is better ...
The Oil Patch.
Feb 06, 2009 ... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] SETTLING IN--That certainly is a roller coaster, when you look at the daily prices for an OPEC barrel (above). But when you look at the weekly and monthly averages (below), it ...
Bank decides hejab is not a hat.(Islam)
Feb 06, 2009 ... The Navy Federal Credit Union has told its employees that its ban on hats in its banks does not mean customers in hejab will be turned away. A Muslim woman in San Diego, California, was turned away from the Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) Saturday for wearing a headscarf. Amal ...
Mosque congregation in Florida hit by bible group.(Islam)
Feb 06, 2009; ... Muslim congregants at a Florida mosque were reportedly the targets of harassment Saturday by a "biblical group" handing out fliers and spewing anti-Islamic slurs. A group of more than 20 people, believed to be in the Tampa area for the Super Bowl, reportedly handed out ...
Ahmadi-nejad forgives Farahani for cavorting with Leonardo DiCaprio.(Culture)
Feb 06, 2009 ... President Ahmadi-nejad has overturned a Culture Ministry ban and allowed the screening of the film "About Elly" at this month's 27th Fajr International Film Festival. Asghar Farhadi's film faced the Culture Ministry's disapproval because one of the film's stars, Golshifteh ...
Germans help study of life at Gohar 5,000 years ago.(Culture)
Feb 06, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A team of Iranian and German archeologists is set to study the 5,000-year-old Gohar Tappeh site in Iran's northern Mazandaran province. In an agreement between the Archaeological Research Center of Iran (ARCI) and the University of Munich, the ...
LA festival will feature 7 films by Iranian directors.(Culture)
Feb 06, 2009 ... The University of California at Los Angeles' 19th annual Film & Television Archive's Celebration of Iranian Cinema has begun and will run through February 21. The Celebration of Iranian Cinema festival runs from January 31 through February 21 and will feature more than seven ...
Rutgers hosting revolutionary conference.(Culture)(Conference news)
Feb 06, 2009 ... The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey is hosting a free, two-day conference, art exhibit and documentary screening examining Iran in the decades since the revolution. The event is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, February 7 and 8. ...
Russia and Iran get strategic.(Commentary)(Reprint)
Feb 06, 2009; ... While many analysts predicted a rosier picture for United StatesIranian relations with the President Barack Obama administration, the situation is rapidly becoming profoundly more difficult and more complicated. The new dimension is Russia. On February 20, the Russian Federation ...
Iran's reaction to the Gaza war.(Commentary)(Reprint)
Feb 06, 2009; ... It does not require a great deal of imagination to guess the Iranian Islamic regime's reaction to the war on Gaza. The Iranian state-run media as well as the more independent newspapers reported graphically the extent of Palestinian suffering as a result of heavy Israeli bombardment. ...
Iran and Israel to look back and ahead on Feb. 10.(text and context)(Reprint)
Feb 06, 2009; ... Many saw the recent fighting in Gaza as part of a wider struggle between Iran and Israel. A cornerstone of the hostilities between the two sides was the 1979 Iranian revolution. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's government completely changed Iran's ruling ideology to one that was hostile to ...
Obama and the Middle East.(text and context)(Reprint)
Feb 06, 2009; ... The first thing that Barack Obama has to under stand about Iran: there is no hurry. The hawks outside the administration, and a few of those who might be inside--notably, Dennis Ross--will say that the situation is a crisis. They will argue that Iran is on the verge of acquiring ...
Iran's Hamas patronage almost two decades old.(text and context)(Reprint)
Feb 06, 2009; ... Ever since the Gaza war started in late December 2008, the entire world has been talking of Iranian sponsorship of Hamas, but very little is known about how the Islamist group in Gaza is linked to the clergy of Tehran. Iranian patronage of Hamas is actually not new, and dates ...
Iran said to raise hurdles.(text and context)
Feb 06, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Germany's foreign minister is concerned that Iran is raising "hurdles" to direct talks just as the United States gets a president prepared to talk. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, speaking in the Bundestag, ...
Obama picks Iranian & Indian Muslim for aides.(text and context)
Feb 06, 2009 ... Iranian-American Vali Nasr has been named as a part-time adviser in the Obama Administration, but to deal with Pakistan, not Iran, while a Muslim has been named a deputy associate counsel in the White House legal office. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nasr is a professor at ...
Biden to Europe: be willing to hit Iran.
Feb 13, 2009; ... Vice President Joseph Biden told European leaders Saturday that the new Obama Administration expects them to use military force if Iran will not curtail its nuclear program. In a major policy speech to a NATO gathering in Munich, Biden said the Obama Administration expects its ...
Ahmadi-nejad declares Iran now 'superpower'.
Feb 13, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] President Ahmadi-nejad Tuesday declared Iran to be a world "superpower." Speaking to a vast crowd gathered at Tehran's Azadi Square for the 30th anniversary of the Islamic revolution, Ahmadi-nejad said, "I officially announce that Iran today is ...
Iran loses in Iraqi balloting.
Feb 13, 2009 ... The preliminary results of the Iraqi provincial elections are in and they appear to many analysts to be a stinging rejection of perceived Iranian influence in Iraq. With 90 percent of the votes counted and published, the party most closely linked to Iran in the Iraqi public's ...
Road to Iran-U.S. talks fills with deep potholes.
Feb 13, 2009 ... The road to direct Iranian-American talks got bumpier this week as President Ahmadi-nejad reiterated for the umpteenth time that the Americans had to make wholesale changes in their policies and President Obama responded by saying it's time for the Islamic Republic to change, too. ...
Khatami says he is running.
Feb 13, 2009 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Former President Mohammad Khatami announced Sunday that he is now a candidate for election as president in the June 12 national balloting. Khatami's announcement is expected to set up a clear left-right, reformist-principleist clash in the ...
House passes bill to help those with names on terrorism list.
Feb 13, 2009 ... The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation last week that will allow people stopped at airports because their names are the same as someone on the suspected terrorist list to fly with minimal delays. The legislation still must pass the Senate before it will become law ....
Iran stuffs U.S. badminton team.
Feb 13, 2009 ... An American badminton team was stranded in Dubai last week and barred from going to Iran despite having been invited to play in Iran. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said Iran didn't have enough time to process visas for the team. USA Badminton, the ...
Official spokesman now says holocaust is 'big lie'.
Feb 13, 2009 ... The Iranian government's official spokesman has labeled the Holocaust a "big lie," going further than the regime has ever gone before. In 2005, in a closed-door speech to an anti-Zionist conference, President Ahmadi-nejad reportedly said the Holocaust was a myth. But when that ...
Quotable notable.(Quotation)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Joseph Biden, U.S. vice president, in a speech to a NATO audience laying out U.S. foreign policy in the Obama Administration: ...
U.S. to send 9 wrestlers to Tehran.
Feb 13, 2009 ... The United States will send nine wrestlers to Iran to compete in the annual Takhti Cup being held March 12-13 in Tehran. American wrestlers were last in Iran for the Takhti Cup two years ago, when 14 American grapplers got a giddy welcome from fans in Bandar Abbas. ...
Obama likes Levey.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Obama likes Levey: Stuart Levey (photo) was named under secretary of the Treasury by George W. Bush and asked to develop financial tools to use against terrorists. In addition, Levey came up with a major financial campaign against the Islamic Republic, chiefly throttling banks to reduce or ...
Bushehr to start in December.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Bushehr to start in December: Russia's Rosatom says it plans to start the nuclear reactor at Bushehr before the end of December. That will be the start of tests to make sure everything works. It will still ...
Big Six mulls Iran.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Big Six mulls Iran: The Big Six powers met last week in Germany and discussed Iran. As explained by diplomats, it was mainly a bull session to toss around ideas with the Obama Administration and not a decision-making conference. No decisions are likely until the new administration finishes ...
95 percent.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... 95 percent: Rasul Dinarvand (photo), deputy health minister for food and pharmaceuticals, says Iran now makes 95 ...
95 percent: Gen. Mohammad-Ali Jafari, commander of the Pasdaran.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... 95 percent: Gen. Mohammad-Ali Jafari, commander of the Pasdaran, said Saturday that 95 ...
L-o-n-g tunnel opens.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... L-o-n-g tunnel opens: Transport Minister Hamid Behbehani last week cut the ribbon opening a new tunnel on the highway that will burrow through ...
Don't ask, we won't tell.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Don't ask, we won't tell: The Freedom of Information bill passed by ...
Polio wiped out.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Polio wiped out: Health Minister Kamran Baqeri-Lankarani says there has been no new case of polio in Iran since 1998 due to annual vaccination programs. He said the national ...
Gaza galore.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Gaza galore: The regime is on a national campaign demanding that the Israelis who led the military invasion of Gaza be prosecuted for war crimes. Hardly a day has passed in the last month without someone in the government pressing this point. Tehran Prosecutor ...
It's all the fault of America.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... It's all the fault of America: The Tabnak website claims that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani recently said the Iran-Iraq-U.S. talks in Baghdad had agreed to hold the talks at a higher level than ambassadorial, but that the Americans killed any future talks by announcing that. Tabnak did ...
Ph.D. means Phony Doctorate.(Tidbits and Morsels; A column of musings on news that might otherwise go unnoticed.)
Feb 13, 2009 ... Ph.D. means Phony Doctorate: The daily Etemad says reporters recently harassed the vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi (photo), asking him to prove he really ...